The Native American

The story of the Native American - American Indian - is one that is unique, tragic and ultimately inspiring. It is unique because the Indians were the original inhabitants of the American continent and experienced every phase of its European settlement, from the earliest l7th century colonies to the closing of the western frontier at the end of the l9th century. It is tragic because the conflict between the Indians and whites paralleled the experience of traditional peoples throughout the world who have come in contact with expanding, industrialized societies. It is an inspiring story because the Native Americans although dispossessed of much of their land in the l9th century, have survived, have asserted their political and economic rights, and have succeeded in retaining their identity and culture despite the onslaught of modem civilization.

Marks of Indian heritage can be found all over the United States. Many of the names on United States maps - Massachusetts, Ohio, Michigan, Kansas, Idaho and more - are Indian words. The Indians taught the Europeans how to cultivate crops such as corn, tomatoes, potatoes and tobacco. Canoes, snowshoes and moccasins are all Indian inventions. Indian handcrafted artifacts such as pottery, silver jewelry, paintings and woven rugs are highly prized.

About 62 percent of the Indians in the United States live in large cities and rural areas scattered throughout the country. The remainder live on about 300 federal reservations (land set aside for their use). Together, the reservations comprise 52.4 million acres (21 million hectares) of land, or about 2.5 percent of the land area in the United States. Most reservations are located west of the Mississippi River.

WHO WERE THE INDIANS?

In 1492, an Italian navigator named Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain in search of a sea route to Asia. Columbus hoped to obtain access to the wealth of spices, silks and gold for which the Asian continent was famous. Six weeks later, his men sighted land.

Thinking he had landed in the Indies a group of islands east of the coast of Asia he called the people on the first island on which he landed "los Indios," or, in English, "Indians." Of course, Columbus had not reached Asia at all. He had landed in the New World (the American continent). But the name "Indians" remains fixed in the English language.

Though Columbus had one name for them, the Indians comprised many groups of people. The Indians north of Mexico in what is now the United States and Canada spoke over 300 languages. (Some 50 to 100 of these languages are still spoken today.) And they lived scattered across the continent in small bands or groups of bands called tribes. To them, the continent was hardly new. Their ancestors had been living there for perhaps 30,000 years.

Over time, these people increased in number and adapted to different environments.

Some groups, such as the peaceful Pueblo of the American Southwest, lived in busy towns. They shared many-storied buildings made of adobe (mud and straw) bricks. They grew corn, squash and beans.

Their neighbors, the Apache, lived in small bands. They hunted wildlife and gathered plants nuts and roots.

In the eastern woods of the North American continent, the Iroquois hunted, fished and farmed. Their long houses, covered with elm bark held as many as 20 families. Each family had its own apartment, on either side of a central hall.

The Iroquois were fierce warriors. They surrounded their villages with wooden stockades to protect them from attack by their neighbors. They fought for the glory of their tribe and for the glory of individual warriors.

Many Indians were fine craftsworkers. They made pottery baskets, carvings and wove cotton and plant-fiber cloth. They traveled in small boats and on foot, never having developed the wheel.

Different as they were, all tribes were greatly affected by the coming of the white man, with his firearms, iron cooking pots, horses, wheeled vehicles and with his diseases, to which the Indians had no immunities. The European arrival changed the Indian way of life forever.

EARLY ENCOUNTERS

At first, the Indians were glad to share their land and their food with the Europeans. The American holiday of Thanksgiving celebrates this Indian generosity. The first to celebrate it were the Pilgrims, a group of English settlers who arrived in America in 1620. They gave thanks for having survived their first year in the harsh American wilderness.

THE QUEST FOR LAND

To the Europeans, much of the Indians' land appeared vacant. The Indians didn't "improve the land" with fences, wells, buildings or permanent towns. Many settlers thought the Indians were savages and that their way of life had little value. They felt they had every right to farm the Indian lands.

On Manhattan Island, the present site of New York City, beaver, deer, fox, wild turkey and other game (wild animals) were plentiful. The Shinnecock Indians used the island for fishing and hunting, but they didn't live there. In 1626 the Dutch "bought" the island from them.

The Shinnecock did not understand that once the land was sold, the Dutch felt it was their right to keep the Indians off. Like most Indians, they had no concept of private property.

The Indians believed that the land was there to be shared by all men. They worshipped the earth that provided them with food, clothing and shelter. And they took from it only what they needed. They didn’t understand when the settlers slaughtered animals to make the woods around their towns safer. They didn't like the roads and towns that to them, scarred the natural beauty of the earth.

To the Europeans, game existed to be killed and land to be owned and farmed. Many did not bother to discuss with the Indians whether or not they wanted to give up their land. To make room for the new settlers, hunting lands, fields, even Indian towns were seized through war, threats, treaties or some combination of the three.

UNIONS

Small Indian bands and tribes could do little against the well-armed and determined colonists, but united, they were often a more powerful force. King Philip, a Wampanoag chief, rallied neighboring tribes against the Pilgrims in 1675. For a year, they fought bloody battles. But even his 20,000 allies could do little against the numerous colonists and their guns. By 1700, few remnants were left of the tribes that had greeted the Pilgrims.

The Iroquois formed the League of Iroquois. They sided with the British against the French in a war for the dominance of America from 1754 to 1763. The British might not have won that war without the support of the League of the Iroquois. In that case, North America might have had a very different history.

The League stayed strong until the American Revolution. Then, for the first time, the council could not reach a unanimous decision on whom to support. Member tribes made their own decisions, some fighting with the British; some with the colonists, some remaining neutral. As a result, everyone fought against the Iroquois. Their losses were great and the League never recovered.

WESTERN FRONTIER

At the time of the American Revolution, the western boundary of the United States was the Appalachian Mountains. Land had become expensive in the colonies and many people were eager to settle the wilderness that lay beyond those mountains.

The Indians fought these invaders of their hunting grounds with a vengeance. They attacked frontier settlements. The white settlers struck back, sometimes massacring entire Indian villages. Indian warfare quickly became a part of frontier life.

At first, the new United States government tried to keep the peace by discouraging settlements beyond the mountains. "The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians, their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights, and liberty they never shall be invaded or disturbed..." read the Northwest Ordinance, designed to regulate the settling of the new frontier. But the frontier was far away and "good faith" was rarely demonstrated.

The United States tried different ways of dealing with their "Indian problem." Basically, they all boiled down to this: The Indian had to be either assimilated or removed farther west to make room for the European civilization the white Americans felt was destined to rule the continent.

In 1817, President James Monroe wrote that the Indians' only chance for survival was to be removed to an area, where they would not be disturbed by the settlers. Given time to learn civilized ways, or to practice their own way of life, they could survive.

And so, in 1830 the United States passed the Indian Removal Act. All Indians in the East would be removed to lands set aside for them west of the Mississippi River.

One of the tribes was the Cherokee. Ironically, the Cherokee had already adopted many of the white man's way; many owned large farms and brick homes in the state of Georgia. Their towns had stores, sawmills, blacksmith shops, spinning wheels and wagons.

In 1821, a Cherokee named Sequoyah developed a written language for his people. Using his 85-character alphabet, the Cherokee printed Bibles and a newspaper. They adopted a constitution modeled on that of the United States government.

Like Monroe, some whites thought removal was a way of saving the Indian peoples. Others saw it as a way to get more land from the Indians. When gold was discovered on Cherokee land, pressure for removal mounted.

A few Cherokees were willing to move to the new lands. Though they did not represent the Cherokee nation, they signed a treaty with the American government agreeing to the removal of the Cherokees.

The peaceful Cherokees were removed by force from their homes and forced to march overland to Indian Territory, in what is now the state of Oklahoma. The difficult journey took three to five months. In all, some 4,000 - one quarter of the Cherokee nation - lost their lives in the course of this removal. This shameful moment in American history has come to be called "The Trail of Tears."

BROKEN TREATIES

On the Plains, tribes such as the Sioux roamed on horseback hunting the buffalo that ranged there. The buffalo gave them everything they needed to live. They ate its meat. They used its skin and fur to make clothing. They stretched its hides over a frame of poles to make the tepees, or tents, they lived in. They carved buffalo bones into knives and tools. The clothing of the Plains Indians was decorated with bead work, and their hair with eagle feathers. These were the proud Indians depicted in television dramas and films about the American West.

When gold was discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota, a land the Sioux considered sacred Crazy Horse, a great Sioux chief refused to sell the land: "One does not sell the Earth upon which the people walk."

At the same time, the buffalo that the Sioux depended on had begun to disappear. The land they roamed was being fenced by farmers and ranchers. And whites began to hunt the buffalo for sport and for its hide. In 1850, there were still 50 million buffalo on the Plains. By 1885, there were almost none. But the Indians could not live on the Plains without the buffalo to feed them. Half starved, they eventually surrendered and came to live on the reservations.

THE RESERVATION SYSTEM

By 1890, most Indians were confined to reservations. The government had promised to protect the remaining Indian lands. It had also promised supplies and food. But poor management, inadequate supplies and incompetent or dishonest government agents led to great suffering on the reservations. Diseases swept through the tribes and for a while it seemed as though the Indians really were a vanishing race.

To survive, many believed, the Indians would have to adopt white ways. On the reservations, Indians were forbidden to practice their religion. Children were sent to boarding schools away from their families.

By the General Allotment Act of 1887, each Indian was allotted 160 acres to farm. But there was no magic in owning private property. Many Indians had no desire to farm. Often, the land given them was infertile. After each Indian was given his plot, the government sold the remaining lands to white settlers.

A NEW DEAL FOR THE INDIANS

In 1924, Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act, which declared all Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States to be citizens. The origin of this act can be attributed to the increased respect of white legislators for the Indians which resulted from their exemplary contribution during World War I.

However, it wasn't until 1934 that the Indians got a "New Deal." The Indian Reorganization Act encouraged the Indians to set up their own governments and ended allotment on the reservations. It halted the policy of trying to persuade or coerce Indians to give up their traditional culture and religion.

The United States was becoming proud of its diverse population. And that included a desire to recognize its Native Americans and to try to compensate them for the unfair treatment hey had received.

INDIAN POWER & INDIAN RIGHTS

At a time when blacks were protesting violations of their civil rights, Indians, too, took their protests to the American public. In the mid-1960s, they called for an "Indian Power" movement to parallel the "Black Power" movement. In 1972, the American Indian Movement (AIM) and other Indian rights groups staged a protest march on Washington called the "Trail of Broken Treaties."

In 1973, national attention once again focused on Wounded Knee, South Dakota. AIM occupied the small village there for 71 days. They demanded the return of lands taken in violation of treaty agreements.

Indians today continue to fight for Indian rights, although less militantly than AIM did in the early 1970s.

Recently, many tribes have carried on the battle for Indian rights in court. They have sued for the return of lands taken from their ancestors. The tribes settled for $81.5 million dollars from the federal government in 1980 and invested the money, in the name of the tribes, in a variety of profitable business enterprises operated by members of the tribe.

AN UPHILL BATTLE

However, in spite of many gains made by the Indians, they still lag far behind most Americans in health, wealth and education. In 1988, the unemployment rate on Indian reservations averaged 64 percent - ten times the national rate. And 27 percent of Native Americans lived below the poverty line - that is, they earned less than the government considered necessary for a decent lifestyle. Diabetes, pneumonia, influenza and alcoholism claim twice as many Indian lives as other American lives.

Today, most reservations are governed by a tribal council. Many run their own police forces, schools and courts that.

The aim of most Indian tribes is to become self-supporting. They are trying to attract businesses to the reservations. Others hope that the natural resources on their reservations will provide much needed income.

Says college-educated Fred Kaydahzinne, great-grandson of a famous Apache warrior: "My generation spent all our time learning the white man's ways. We mastered them, but we lost a lot of Indian heritage. Now we are trying to regain what we have lost."

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14